Hi Everyone..
Let me introduce myself......I am Laurie better known as CC of lacenribbonroses and suestreehouse.
I love crochet, a bit of knitting some sewing, making pincushions and Christmas ornaments. I love applique, embroidery ,making needlecases.and vintage things, specially vintage quilt and embroidery patterns. If it's handwork..I enjoy it.
Thank you so much Aunt Pitty Pat for inviting me to this group. She is a lovely,wonderful lady and I am so deeply honored to be counted in this group along with you, the new member Khris and all the rest of the sweet members. I know Khris from Freebies for Crafters..she has featured my vintage patterns many times. She is akso lovely lady...
Again, thank you for the invitation..I am honored to be a part of this group. Hugs to everyone.. CC

I finally settled on a design for my blocks for the Month block swap. I narrowed my choices down to the four leaf clover.

I went out shopping for just the "right" green fabric but couldn't decide so I decided to piece a variety of colors together instead of using just one green. I think all 12 together with some green sashing would make a nice quilt too.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

I belong to a swap group that swaps ornaments each month based on a Year of Enchantment theme. This month's theme is Gnomes. These are some of the projects I have been working on. My partner has one of those silver travel trailers that she calls The Gnome Dome so I thought a felt gnome wall hanging might be fun to hang inside.

Thank you Cathy for inviting me to participate in this new blog. I am very excited to see some familiar names. The blog is looking good girls...well done....I hope I can keep up with you all. I am now working again and even though I wanted part time hours they are turning into full time hours....agghhh....I am tired....it is only a temporary job but it could be a long temporary job. I love temp jobs but was really hoping it wasn't going to go for too long. I like my time at home and my crafty/sewing hours. Hugs to all....Khris aka Sew Prim Khris

NOTE FROM CATHY:Welcome aboard, Khris!! We are thrilled to have you join us.Ladies, if you do not know Khris, let me introduce her. She is one of our sweet friends from Australia, and a very talented crafter who authors an awesome blog calledFreebies for Crafters, which is a treasure chest of free patterns! You will want to bookmark it!!Khris also has created her own patterns and is known for holding some fun swaps :)We look forward to her contributions here on Pins from time to time.Don't work too hard, Khris!!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Summer has just begun, but for us who sew it's time to start preparing for the next school year. Perhaps you don't have a young daughter, granddaughter, niece or friends child in your life; maybe you know of someone who’s pregnant or has a new baby. Leg warmers are great for both genders when they’re learning to crawl; they're wonderful for protecting the knees. They’re also great for under dresses as the weather gets cooler. I know for those of us in the south “cooler” isn’t a word right now; can you say blazing heat? Do we really get used to breathing in the moist HOT air? What about frying eggs on the sidewalk? Sorry, rabbit trail! In the south we not only have HOT summers, but we can have mild winters too. So under all those cute handmade dresses my daughter will be wearing to K3 she will have on leggings. The great thing about leggings is she can wear them in the morning then take them off in the afternoon when it warms up.

Leggings are easy and cheap to make. All you need is tall women’s socks, some thread, and about 15 minutes (for the first pair). By the way, I used 1/4" seams and zig-zag stitched.

Pick your color and make sure they are tall socks. I bought these recently on clearance at Target for $1.

Cut the foot off the socks right above the heel. It's okay if it's already flaring where you cut; because it's knit it won't show.

Cut a section out of the foot portion 5"x 2.5" on fold. You will end up with a rough 5" square; these will be your cuffs. Note, I typically cut this from the bottom of the foot, but these socks really slanted so I went from the top.

Fold the cuffs so that the pattern of the leggings match the cuffs. I've messed this one up a few times so make sure it's how you like it.

The top cuff is still showing the direction I want it when it's on the legging. On the bottom cuff I opened it up leaving Top A up and folding the sides together. Zig-zag stitch down "sides" creating a tube.

Turn the cuff in half so that Top A & B are up and the wrong side of fabric is together. Sorry, the it's blurry!

Save your sanity and zig-zag stitch the two raw edges together. I've made the leggings without doing this and it's a pain; not to mention time consuming.

Also, (hehehe) the loop is so small make sure you don't catch the top in the portion you are sewing. I'm not saying I did it or anything (guilty look), but if one should catch even a little bit of the top you might just have to take the foot off the sewing machine to then clip the fabric.

Slip the cuff over the legging matching the seam up with one of the pressed sides of the legging. The cuff will be smaller then the legging so you must stretch it out to pin it down; you must also do this when zig-zag stitching them together.

Your finished!

Here she is at 1.5 years old wearing her leggings. As you can see she wasn't a very willing model; she was taking them off.

These are also great for travel! We were driving from England to Germany when at one gas stop we realized the temperature had dropped. We slipped the leggings on her and she was good to go. She was 1.5 years old in the photo wearing a pair of white leggings. She still wears both pairs of leggings at 3.5 years old. I've read they can wear them until they're about 7.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Hello fellow Pins and Needles Bloggers. I have a question for you what would you like to see here in our new site? Since our blog is so new it would be nice to get some suggestions of things to offer you. I have seen other forums like this do interviews, offer products from vender's, show case another persons blog, tutorials, links to fun web sites, original patterns from members, new ideas, product reviews, give aways from other members... what??? Please give me an idea where to start. I want our new Pins site to be successful and interesting to our readers. I would also like to see more of us posting our amazing handcrafted items. :) I know your out there.. I also know its summer and a lot of you don't blog as much :)Thanks for any new direction that you can give us :)

Friday, June 18, 2010

Hello Ladies.. if you haven't visited AuntPittyPat's blog in a while I am holding a swap. We are to make one Potholder.. that's it. You send only a potholder to your partner. You have until the end of June to sign up and then I will assign partners :) So send me and email with the following to sign up :)NameAddressPhone NumberWill you ship internationalCome on ladies lets join in on the fun :)

Hi, I'm Caroll. I blog for the Attic Window Quilt Shop and I have a question for you. Are you a saver? What a silly question. All quilters are savers. It’s in our blood. Some days I feel like my growing scrap pile is closing in on me and that if I don’t do something soon it will squeeze me right out of my sewing room. Can’t let that happen. I’m addicted. I gotta quilt! Consequently, I’m constantly looking for ways to use up those scraps. When I see the beautiful scrap quilts on other blogs, I think, “I’ll do that.” Then I realize how much piecing is involved and rationality sets in. I may start it, but I’ll never finish it. However, here is something I might do. The other day when I was at the Attic Window Quilt Shop, I came across this book. It called out to me for several reasons: 1. it has lots of ideas for small projects that you can make with your scraps. Notice the word SMALL. Now this is the kind of piecing I can do and FINISH! #2. this lovely book was just $9. That’s unheard of today! Most books I buy have to either be purchased with my 50% off coupon at that unnamed other store or found at a yard sale. #3. this lovely book is by a fellow Michigander, Carol Loessel of Macomb, Michigan. Now, I ask you, who could resist those three reasons to buy! You can visit Carol’s blog here.

For those of you who don’t know about the Attic Window Quilt Shop check us out. Recently I did an interview with Blog Interviewer about how the Attic Window Quilt Shop’s blog began. Check it out here.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

After all the debating of home, private, or public school we finally enrolled our daughter at the local private school in K3. She will be going three half days a week. I was told she would have to take a backpack each day big enough to hold a folder (not rolled). They said the only time she is guaranteed to bring something home is Wednesday when she brings her folder home. A quick measurement showed that her Walmart backpack was to small. After a bit of debating and internet searching I starting finding toadstool backpacks. They were really cute. Apparently the pattern is in some book that cost almost $40. I was hoping to find a tutorial for something like it, but struck out. What I did learn was that it is to small for a folder. So after a bit of measuring, rounding corners, and debating straps I finally came up with this. When I had it all Wonder Under(ed) on and blanket stitched down I was honestly impressed with how much it looked like the other backpacks I saw.

Size was an issue for me. Fine it fits a fold, but is that all I want it used for? I put a lot of work in it and wanted it to be a bit thicker then a folder. The backpacks I found online had the front and back pieces sewn together. I added a side/bottom strip to make it wide enough to hold a change of clothes (remember she's three and still has accidents), snack, cup or whatever else she might want to put in it. The line you see above the magnetic closure is the name strip. I'll never try it again (maybe I will), but I cut out teeny tiny letters and ironed them on. It was to small to sew around so I put no-fray over them and now I'm holding my breath they still look good by next year. **Don't mind the vet records. It was the only folder I could find. It would have helped if I found it before cutting the bag out; I played the guessing game on size.**

And here it is in action. The one thing I'm going to change is the strap length. They need about 5" taken off.

My daughter's turned out so well I actually made a second to sell on Etsy. I'm such a slacker though; I haven't put the lining in it yet. I guess the bonus to slacking off is easier access to the straps to shorten them the 5" like I'm going to do with my daughter's.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

I may not be very active for a little bit. I am getting ready to move to our new base. Once I get there I can't wait to get some swaps going. I am so glad you decided to start blogger to keep us all connected !Love you all Gigi .....

Start a chat with a single contact first. Once the chat has been established, click Group Chat from that tab to invite more participants.

There's no limit to the number of people you can chat with in a group chat, and any participant can invite others to join as well.

To end your chat, simply click the X in the chat tab to close that chat. The group chat will continue until all participants have left - if you want to rejoin, you'll need to be invited back by a participating contact.

Although I was so sad to hear about the Ning Pins & Needles Site closing, I am very thankful to APP and Ms Brenda for setting up this new site on Blogger for us. I really enjoy sharing and being able to see what everyone else is working on. It's so inspiring!! Plus... I'm made some awesome friends on Pins!♥ How about you?Here is Oklahoma it's been HOT! and that has made me want to be inside where the AC is running during the afternoons, so I had been enjoying hand stitching projects like embroidery and punchneedle.I have found a wonderful blog authored by Sue Allemand, who creates the cutest FREE stitchery patterns! What a sweetie, to share with us "stitchery junkies" for free!Check out her blog, Free Stitchin' PatternsHEREHope all of you are finding some time to enjoy your favorite stitching craft.Thanks again, APP and Ms Brenda for keeping us Pins & Needles gals together!!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

I joined in on the block of the month swap...My blocks are now completed .... just in time to send off to the hostess... prior to Ning closing.I had a really good time making these blocks.. but for some reason I was having a time of trimming them to the proper size. So I just cut all of them a tad big. That way the participants can cut them when its time. Usually a block will get frayed in transport and sorting this way the block will have nice and crisp edges when its time to sew them together..... After the final trim.There were twelve of us in this block swap... Each person was assigned a month...Mine was Oct :) Yes my favorite time of the year!!I guess???? I should stop writing and show all of you what I came up with :)Here is my Block for the Month of Oct ;)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

I hope we all have a great time here..I hated the closing of Ning Pins and Needles blog.I hope we get a lot of people joining in on this blog ;)I can hardly wait to see what everyone shares with our readers.***** ATTENTION****I am new to this group posting thing... I was up very late working on the site.. but it appears I still have errors... Please mark yourself as a favorite, and send me and email at AuntPittyPatsfun@yahoo.com so I can add you as an author of this blog :) You must receive and invitation to be an author on this blog.. so if you didn't get one please email me.Some of you have received new invitations.. so please follow the instructions :)Thank you!!